Enigma’s capture key to victory; World War II in Europe ends; to the Moon and back in 2½ seconds; African soccer disaster; and jail a ‘death sentence’
1671 Thomas Blood, an Irish adventurer better known as ‘Captain Blood’, is captured trying to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. King Charles II is so impressed that he makes Blood a member of the royal court and gives him an annual pension.
1926 The first flight over the North Pole is claimed by Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett.
1927 Canberra replaces Melbourne as the capital of Australia.
1941 The submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma machine which the Allied code-breakers later use to decode top-secret German messages, which is one of their keys to victory.
1945 The European phase of World War II officially ends at one minute past midnight. The day is celebrated annually as Victory Day in Russia, a national holiday commemorating the 20 million Russians who died during ‘The Great Patriotic War’.
1962 A laser beam is bounced off the Moon, 384 400km from Earth, for the first time. By measuring how long it takes laser light to bounce back – about 2.5 seconds – researchers were able to calculate the distance between Earth stations and the Moon accurately to less than a few millimetres, which was vital in planning for a moon mission. (So, when someone says, ‘love you to the Moon and back’ does it mean they only love you for 2.5 seconds?)
1966 Anti-apartheid lawyer Abram (Bram) Fischer, and holder of the Lenin Peace Prize, is sentenced to life imprisonment on a charge of conspiracy to commit sabotage.
1980 A Liberian freighter rams a bridge in Florida’s Tampa Bay, collapsing part of it. Six cars and a bus plunge 45m into the water.
1994 Nelson Mandela is elected unopposed as first black and democratic president.
2001 In Ghana, 129 football fans die in the Accra Sports Stadium disaster during a stampede following a referee decision.
2018 A dam on a coffee farm near the Rift Valley town of Solai, Kenya, bursts after heavy rain, killing 45 people.
2019 French adventurer Jean-Jacques Savin (72) crosses the Atlantic Ocean in a barrel albeit a custom -made one – arriving in Martinique.
2022 44 more inmates die in a prison riot in Ecuador, leading Amnesty International to say imprisonment is now nearly “a death sentence” in Ecuador.